8.27.2011

Writers At Home 1

Art, books and light fill author and historian Barbara Goldsmith’s Manhattan apartment, designed by Mica Ertegun, of MAC II. “Instead of jewelry,” says Goldsmith, “books have become my Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” For the dining room/library, Ertegun bought the Art Déco table at a Paris flea market; the chairs were designed by MAC II. At rear is Three Weeks, 1957, by Larry Rivers. Brunschwig & Fils bench fabric. (December 2006)

The famed author of Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton, and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin, took five years in search of the perfect spot to move. They desired a place less hectic than their current home of Los Angeles and with enough space for Martin’s horses. They finally settled on charming house over 100 years old in the town of Bedford, New York—just an hour from Manhattan. “This was major reconstruction, beyond plastic surgery,” designer Judith Kanner says of the Crichton’s home that she renovated with her late husband, architect Charles Kanner. Above: The couple’s library. A pair of Eames rosewood chairs flank an Isamu Noguchi low table. Jasper John’s The Dutch Wives, 1977, is above the leather sofa, and his Flag, 1960-66, hangs at left. (July 2002)

For the New York penthouse pied-à-terre of playwright Neil Simon and his wife, Elain Joyce Simon—in the same building as their main residence—John Barman designed a “modern, warm, comfortable interior to write and casually entertain in,” he remarks. Above: The apartment is “a showcase of important 20th-century art,” says Barman, who arranged In a Dentist’s Chair by Anthony Angarola above a living room sofa. The work at the center is by Louis Lozowick. Armchair, with Rogers & Goffigon fabric, and a sofa by J. Robert Scott. (November 2008)